The Glamorous Comeback of the Ousted Heiress

**

Jiang He’s room.

His desk was too small, so when Jiang Fulai entered, Bai Lian casually sat on his carpet, flipping through the review in her hand.

Getting ready to head to the lab later.

Jiang Fulai squatted beside her with the blood draw kit, watching her leaf through the review.

After finishing the page of data, Bai Lian slowly flipped to the next page without raising her head, “What are you doing?”

“Would you mind a blood draw?” Jiang Fulai asked, tilting his head slightly, his eyelashes drooping as he showed her the kit in his hand, and added, “To check a routine blood panel?”

A routine blood panel?

Bai Lian pressed her hand on the review, looking towards Jiang Fulai. Her eyes were extremely dark, like the depths of a heavily fogged abyss, where one could easily get trapped once fallen in.

“Okay, will you do it?” About two minutes later, Bai Lian agreed.

Jiang Fulai nodded.

Bai Lian paused and then unhurriedly rolled up her left sleeve, revealing her wrist and elbow, her wrist shimmering with the cold light of silver Iridium.

Her skin was pale, and her wrist unusually slender; the veins on her wrist were plainly visible.

Jiang Fulai looked down, his slender fingertips pinching the needle, the vein right before his eyes. He had learned this.

Three minutes later, his cool face bore a trace of defeat, “I’ll get a doctor to come up.”

He set down the needle.

**

The next day.

Monday.

Jiang Fulai had a routine group meeting; Grandma Ning Xiao wasn’t feeling well, so they didn’t work on problems together, and the group of teenagers all went their separate ways.

Weng Qi was wailing as he leaned on Tang Ming’s shoulder, “Why another test? Tang Ming, how exactly do you study?”

With Bai Lian’s and Ning Xiao’s nearly supernatural memory, he didn’t wish to ask.

“I just study,” Tang Ming said succinctly.

Next to him, Pu Xiaohan tilted her head, “Tang Ming, you’re acting weird today.”

Weng Qi stared for a long while, then exclaimed in horror, “Did you have a stroke?”

Tang Ming: “…”

Yang Lin walked to the right of Bai Lian, heading towards the milk tea shop after exiting the school gates.

At the intersection, a cool motorbike was parked.

Xu Nanjing, tall and handsome with a sunshine-like demeanor, stood out from the surrounding students with his noble air and distinguished appearance.

His face always wore a smile, and with a helmet in hand, he saw Bai Lian and raised his hand, “Hi.”

The passing students all turned to look this way.

Seeing the motorbike, Bai Lian stopped and walked towards him.

“I forgot to give you this yesterday,” Xu Nanjing said, extending his hand to hand Bai Lian a paper bag hanging from the handlebars.

Bai Lian took it; it was full of unsealed books.

“Comprehensive questions for senior year,” Xu Nanjing said, stepping onto the motorbike.

Bai Lian looked up; her persona at school was always obedient, “Thank you.”

Over the years, Xu Nanjing had never met anyone quite like Bai Lian.

Too well-behaved, seemingly without any distinct personality traits, yet somehow different from yesterday.

He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, and at that moment didn’t dare to suggest taking Bai Lian out to be seen at a club. He just put on his helmet, “No problem, do well on them, I’m off, little sister.”

With a roar, the motorbike sped away.

Not far off, a classmate from class 8 walking with Ren Wanxuan nudged her, “Who is the school beauty talking to?”

“I don’t know,” Ren Wanxuan had not been having an easy time recently.

Ren Qian was still implicated by Secretary Zhou. This year at the committee election, Ren Qian’s term had expired, and many from class 8 knew about it, their attitude towards her was no longer as respectful as before.

“Since when did Xiangcheng have such a rich street racer?”

Ren Wanxuan didn’t know much about motorbikes, “What?”

“That bike, it must cost a million,” Chen Zhu narrowed his eyes, watching the bike drive away, “And that license plate…”

It didn’t seem to be from Xiangcheng.

**

Purest Street.

Xiaojie parked the car and frowned, “Living here is really inconvenient for them.”

The alley where Ji Heng lived was narrow and cars couldn’t drive in; every time one had to walk a distance to get there.

The butler got out from the back seat,

As the two of them walked towards Ji Heng’s home, as soon as they entered Purest Street, they saw a girl wearing a school uniform talking to two boys dressed in flashy clothes at the entrance of a small store not far away.

One with yellow hair, one with red hair.

Xiaojie glanced casually and noticed the girl wearing a Xiangcheng No.1 Middle School uniform, her face partially visible with a plain hairpin shining brightly behind her head, “Is that…”

Such a distinct personal style, he quickly recognized her as Bai Lian.

The butler retracted his gaze and frowned slightly, “It’s her.”

But the two of them were not interested. They were here for Ji Heng.

Ji Heng’s yard.

When Bai Lian returned with the exercises Xiaowu had brought back from Jiangjing, Ji Heng was talking to the butler. Xiaojie stood respectfully behind the butler.

“Grandpa,” Bai Lian entered, closed the door behind her, and greeted Ji Heng.

Ji Heng, holding his smoking pipe, unusually not embroidering, finally relaxed a bit when he saw Bai Lian return, “You didn’t stay to do problems today?”

As soon as Bai Lian returned, the butler stopped talking and lowered his head to drink his tea.

“Everyone had matters to attend to,” replied Bai Lian succinctly.

Knowing that Ji Heng must be discussing something important, she didn’t disturb them anymore and went back to her room to put down her backpack and take out the problems Xu Nanjing and Xu Wenyao had brought her.

On her cell phone, Dean Jian had sent a message—

[Do you have an idea for your new song?]

Bai Lian took out the abridged score and briefly tried it on the guzheng.

**

Ji Heng, seeing Bai Lian return, went to the kitchen to get her a plate of fruit to take over.

He always placed Bai Lian’s needs first.

The butler was speaking with him about important matters, and this attitude from Ji Heng made him purse his lips slightly. Xiaojie, noticing this behind him, quickly stepped forward to take the plate from Ji Heng’s hands, “I’ll take it in for you.”

He was quick, and by the time Ji Heng reacted, Xiaojie was already knocking on Bai Lian’s door with the plate.

Three polite knocks.

After receiving permission, Xiaojie went in, aware this should be Bai Lian’s room. He didn’t look around much, just placed the plate on the edge of Bai Lian’s desk.

“Thank you,” Bai Lian said, her pen pausing on a stroke of the character “four,” as she looked up slightly.

Very polite.

“No need to be polite. Is there anything else you need? I’ll bring it all in together,” so Ji Heng doesn’t have to keep worrying.

As Xiaojie spoke, his gaze swept over the items on her desk.

Bai Lian’s desk was cluttered with many items, yet everything was neatly arranged: a blue crystal glass bottle, a silver pendulum, a guzheng beside them, and even three lighters scattered in a corner.

To the left were piles of white-paper books.

Xiaojie guessed they might be the novels that middle school students liked, with the covers ripped off by her.

Further down, Bai Lian held a pen, writing something akin to “The Four Great Standards,” something that seemed like numbers but wasn’t quite.

He didn’t understand what she was doing and didn’t figure it out.

Bai Lian lowered her head and finished writing the small character “four,” “No, that’s all.”

“Alright,” Xiaojie retracted his gaze and left, closing the door behind him.

He silently thought that the “45” she wrote was quite neat, although Shen Qing always said her niece was very diligent in her studies, he couldn’t see that now.

“I am going to take your eldest son back to Jiangjing,” the butler continued the earlier conversation. “The conditions here are not suitable, and… we need him to change his surname back to Mu.”

Ji Heng struck a match, lit his cigarette, and flicked his hand to extinguish the flame, “What about his safety?”

That was his only concern.

The butler tapped his fingers lightly on the stone table, his age showing, “You can rest assured about that too.”

Ji Heng remained silent then, blowing out smoke rings, for nearly ten minutes before finally he spoke again, “I understand.”

Seeing he finally relented, the butler relaxed.

“Then please talk to him. We will depart for Jiangjing in a few days,” he said as he stood up to bid goodbye to Ji Heng.

After the two left, Xiaojie asked, “We’re not observing further, are we certain about taking this Ji Shaojun back with us?”

The butler squinted, “You just had contact with Bai Lian. What do you think of her?”